


Down to Zero (The Spare Me From What Comes Remix)

by magicasen



Category: Marvel Contest of Champions (Video Game)
Genre: Civil Warrior, M/M, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 05:56:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17892800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicasen/pseuds/magicasen
Summary: In another world, on another Earth, the Superhuman Civil War runs a darker, bloodier course.





	Down to Zero (The Spare Me From What Comes Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kiyaar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyaar/gifts).
  * Inspired by [5, 4, 3, 2, 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13308687) by [Kiyaar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyaar/pseuds/Kiyaar). 
  * In response to a prompt by [Kiyaar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyaar/pseuds/Kiyaar) in the [2019_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2019_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness) collection. 



> A POV switch up of Kiyaar's devastating Civil Warrior story. There's not much Tony in her fic (for good reason) so I hope I filled in the holes a little. Some of the lines in here are taken from her fic. 
> 
> If you're not familiar with Civil Warrior, luckily there's [not much to acquaint yourself with!](https://marvel-contestofchampions.fandom.com/wiki/Civil_Warrior) Thank you to Sineala for looking this over!

It boils down to this: a game of cat-and-mouse, and Tony is a sewer rat chasing down the alley cat.

Extremis feeds Tony the newslines, video and audio feeds, reports of the—the newscaster has a slip of the tongue and calls them _Avengers_ , and she's getting fired for that—the _extremist cell of former superheroes_ and an operation in Seattle. 

“Take him down,” the voice on the phone says. It's a warning. 

Steve has nine lives to Tony's one, and the ice took one. Then Tony's team catches up in Seattle and Tony throws Steve into the Needle. Extremis tells him he's broken half the man's ribs and his pelvis. The man escapes anyway, but now he's down to seven.

* * *

Tony's not sure when it changed. Because once, he fought for the American people, as their voice. He was backed by politicians, activists, mothers and families, their voicemails of support overflowing his mailbox. Superheroes need accountability. A death of an innocent child can no longer be excused, justified by the need for superheroes to save ten more children in the future in their place.

There are levels of fear. First is anger, outrage at _that shouldn't have happened_ and _that could have happened to me._ That was what the American people felt after Stamford, and what drove the first group of superheroes underground. But there's a point when safety feels so compromised, anger dissipates into distrust. Fear. An unwillingness to look at anything past your own bubble. If you can't look out for your own, then why look out for others? 

Those threats, of Sentinels to keep the superheroes in line, anything to assuage politicians' need to serve their people, they're all laughable. The American people are no longer angry at superheroes.

Superheroes were meant to watch over everyone: heroes, villains, the innocent. Themselves.

Lie as he liked, from the beginning, Tony's armor had only protected his own heart. If they couldn't look out for their own, what duty did they have to the American people, now?

* * *

I have to be better, I can be better than this, Tony tells himself, like a mantra. Like Steve. What would Steve do. Because whatever Steve's doing, it's working, the more supers defect to anti-Registration, the more dissent grows among the people, desperate for any end.

Tony isn't Steve, so he uses what he has. So he sells his body and a part of his soul. He doesn't think any of the men who claim him really want him as much as they crave power. They want someone whose power they can conceptualize, through how much money, or how many women, or the number of superheroes they've thrown in prison. The amount of deaths they're responsible for.

Tony gives his sixth eulogy in a month. He pays out death gratuities and survivor benefit plans like they're bonuses. There's paperwork with his signature out there, with his tear and blood stains hurriedly wiped off.

He and Steve, they'd lost _better_.

They lose it in the gulf when they destroy a Roxxon oil rig, where the pro-Registration forces trade the lives of half the marine life in the Gulf for one of Steve Rogers's. They lose it in South Bend, where they set off a fault line when Steve blocks the unibeam with his shield.

At some point between lives five and four, after Steve disables the armor systems and throws Tony into Lake Michigan, leaving him in a sinking coffin. After Tony is dug up from the bottom of the lake and vomits like a drunkard over the Helicarrier floor, mind dizzy with anger and the closest he's felt to hatred for the other man. At some point, Tony knows that the both of them aren't coming out of this alive.

* * *

There's secrets. There's the manifestation of Reality in an glowing yellow gem, but even that doesn't feel so much of a betrayal as the room of shield prototypes and armors painted red, white and blue next door.

Tony can't say why he does it. Maybe he needs reassurance, because for so long he's only had his own arrogance to fuel him. He doesn't know if it's strong enough to fuel an entire paramilitary force, to destroy his friends. Maybe he seeks penance. Maybe he wants something to finally see him for what he is, and to judge him on the truth, and nothing less.

_Show me how to fix this,_ he asks the Reality Gem _._

* * *

He's warm, but Steve is warmer. His breath huffs against Tony's skin. Tony has longer hair, long enough for this Steve to tangle his fingers through the strands. Tony has – well, this Tony has breasts, small enough to flatten against Steve when he squeezes him. The Steve here chuckles and wipes the tears from Tony's eyes when he starts crying, and when that doesn't stop them, presses his lips against Tony's eyelids.

The only times Tony's cried in front of his Steve, Steve walked out in disgust.

Tony refuses to see any other worlds. He spends the rest of the evening taking out the bottles beneath his sink. The bottles are lined up in a perfect row, his last symbol of control over his life. Tony thinks he loses when he smashes one on the floor, smells the intoxicating stench of cheap whiskey flood his senses and seep into his carpet. He curls up, face smashed into the rug, and weeps, the booze running up his nose, mixing with the taste of salt and nearly choking him

It's a stupid, simple, impossible solution. In another world, he was lovable. The failure he is, he'd never achieved that in this lifetime.

* * *

Hypocrite. Machine. Monster.

At the end, Steve had finally seen through to him, and calls him what he is.

The shield isn't a blunt weapon. It crushes Tony's sternum, but slashes open his throat at the same time. His jugular gives a rough little cough, before a bright burst of blood floods out.

The faceplate is ripped off now, but there are noises in his ears, warnings of critical failure, and he doesn't know if it's referring to his armor, his body, or his heart. His brain goes dull, because there's nowhere for the oxygen to go, now that his blood is spilling out.

Steve freezes. His expression is blank, hollow, sunken, and Tony never sees that face outside of the mirror.

 _I did that_ , he thinks, as Steve stares uncomprehendingly at him, as his chest cavity caves further inwards. He's capable of this much, of making Steve Rogers hate him like scorched earth, that consumes every ideal that created him.

There's nothing left to hide anymore. There's no mask to wear, and it only confirms what Tony'd known from the moment Steve had woken up the first time. There was never any part of Tony Stark worthy of being seen by Steve Rogers.

The man Tony loves is gone, in those eyes devoid of anger, of sorrow.

 _I killed him_ , Tony thinks, and the tears don't dry before they're both down to zero.

 


End file.
